Uncle Ebenezer - A Christmas Carol

Ticketlinks: 11Jan01:
Like most people, I have seen a lot of versions of A Christmas Carol over the years. Musicals on the West End stage, film adaptations, local versions - even the Muppet Christmas Carol. So I could have been forgiven in thinking there would be little new to interest me in this show. I was wrong.

The venue is a small black box acting space with a clear floor and some odd bits and pieces to suggest a Dickensian context. The first suprise is to find a cast of over 30 filling the space - and they really good fill it, moving with an assurance that prevented traffic jams and collisions and allowed them to create impressive displays and movement.

The hauntings were well presented and the use of puppetry added an extra dimension, especially to Marley's ghost - a very impressive sight, well handled.

Some tweaks to the story allowed it to be told as enacted narrative with Scrooge's nephew acting as the storyteller - this worked well though the resolution between the real and told stories doesn't bear too close an inspection - but by that time your being swept along by the confident singing and staging and the excellent individual performances of William Maxwell (Scrooge), Bill Ward (Nephew), Martin Fletcher (Bob Cratchit) and others. The children performed well, keeping up with the pace and presentation of their elders and there er some nice set pieces such as stripping Ebenezer's corpse.

If you go to see this keep an eye (and ear) out for the ensemble - whilst the action is going on they are always concentrating and providing credible off-line acting, even their rhubarb banter is appropriate and in keeping. Unusual discipline.

The venue is a small black box acting space with a clear floor and some odd bits and pieces to suggest a Dickensian context. The first suprise is to find a cast of over 30 filling the space - and they really good fill it, moving with an assurance that prevented traffic jams and collisions and allowed them to create impressive displays and movement.

The hauntings were well presented and the use of puppetry added an extra dimension, especially to Marley's ghost - a very impressive sight, well handled.

Some tweaks to the story allowed it to be told as enacted narrative with Scrooge's nephew acting as the storyteller - this worked well though the resolution between the real and told stories doesn't bear too close an inspection - but by that time your being swept along by the confident singing and staging and the excellent individual performances of William Maxwell (Scrooge), Bill Ward (Nephew), Martin Fletcher (Bob Cratchit) and others. The children performed well, keeping up with the pace and presentation of their elders and there er some nice set pieces such as stripping Ebenezer's corpse.

If you go to see this keep an eye (and ear) out for the ensemble - whilst the action is going on they are always concentrating and providing credible off-line acting, even their rhubarb banter is appropriate and in keeping. Unusual discipline.